Far-right parties have increasingly emphasised their movement-like characteristics as a novel mobilisation strategy. Existing studies of these so-called ‘far-right movement parties’ have concentrated on their internal organisation and communications to understand how they mediate between a movement and party identity through their own actions. Yet research is lacking on how this identity is constructed and presented by the news media: a crucial interface between institutional politics and public opinion. This paper pursues this enquiry with a comparative analysis of the newspaper coverage of two prominent cases—the German AfD and UKIP—and asks how coverage of their increasing involvement in protests has varied cross-nationally and evolved over time. The analysis reveals the relative salience of the protest activities of the far-right, along with the associated social movement actors, issues and frames used in the reporting. It shows that far-right party protest receives a low level of attention and tends to be accompanied by delegitimising framing, particularly when associated (extremist) movements are also present. In both cases analysed, a critical juncture generated increasing attention to far-right party protest, but also more delegitimising frames. The study provides new insights into the structures and processes which influence how the media has responded to the new far-right ‘movement party’ form in Europe, with implications for our understanding of contemporary far-right mobilisation strategies.

Right up their street? News media framing of the protest activities of far-right movement parties / Paxton, F.. - In: ACTA POLITICA. - ISSN 0001-6810. - (2024). [10.1057/s41269-024-00334-w]

Right up their street? News media framing of the protest activities of far-right movement parties

Paxton F.
2024-01-01

Abstract

Far-right parties have increasingly emphasised their movement-like characteristics as a novel mobilisation strategy. Existing studies of these so-called ‘far-right movement parties’ have concentrated on their internal organisation and communications to understand how they mediate between a movement and party identity through their own actions. Yet research is lacking on how this identity is constructed and presented by the news media: a crucial interface between institutional politics and public opinion. This paper pursues this enquiry with a comparative analysis of the newspaper coverage of two prominent cases—the German AfD and UKIP—and asks how coverage of their increasing involvement in protests has varied cross-nationally and evolved over time. The analysis reveals the relative salience of the protest activities of the far-right, along with the associated social movement actors, issues and frames used in the reporting. It shows that far-right party protest receives a low level of attention and tends to be accompanied by delegitimising framing, particularly when associated (extremist) movements are also present. In both cases analysed, a critical juncture generated increasing attention to far-right party protest, but also more delegitimising frames. The study provides new insights into the structures and processes which influence how the media has responded to the new far-right ‘movement party’ form in Europe, with implications for our understanding of contemporary far-right mobilisation strategies.
2024
Right up their street? News media framing of the protest activities of far-right movement parties / Paxton, F.. - In: ACTA POLITICA. - ISSN 0001-6810. - (2024). [10.1057/s41269-024-00334-w]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11381/2979960
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